After many months of planning and imagining, I finally made it out to visit DR from Berkeley, California. I've been really impressed with the work that's been done here already, and I'm so excited about the vision for this place and the building and planting and planning projects that are currently (or soon to be) under way.
My week has been filled with all sorts of projects, ranging from building shelves, to baking bread, to felting wool. I've also made it into bustling Rutledge (pop. 107) for the fire department auction, and into the town of Memphis (bigger than Rutledge) to see the high school mystery murder play. It's been great to see that the DR folk make a big effort to stay involved with the greater community. I hadn't thought to wonder about that before I came. Soon I'll be helping with some carpentry in the new outdoor kitchen, and planting tree seedlings if the ground dries up enough. Something else I hadn't really expected is how beautiful it is here in Missouri.
We saw an incredibly vivid full double rainbow yesterday! It was, for me, a beautiful and welcome reminder to savor even the most erratic weather-or at least to keep watching the sky when the weather seems crazy. The rainbow seemed to rise up with the trees near the DR swimming pond in a wide arc to the open fields behind the neighbor's barn. I ran outside in bare feet and jumped around with everyone-as much because my feet were freezing as because I was so excited by how beautiful the rainbow was. And then I jumped up and down because my feet were still freezing and because of the way the shadows and light were dancing on the hills behind the house. The sun shone onto the fields, pouring into shades of vivid green and shadowy contours. Strong and bright, and spring! And this incredible arc of color just a hundred feet away. It was really amazing.
We hid from the rain on the east side of the house to ooh and aah some more, while Tony still ran around taking pictures. And I was still jumping around, trying to minimize the contact between the increasingly numb soles of my feet and the cold wet grass. It worked out well, because I'm sure I would've been jumping around anyway. I was feeling so excited and energized by the beauty of this landscape and the thrill of seeing such an incredible rainbow. But the rain was still blowing and the grass was still really, really cold, so finally we ran back into the house, warmed ourselves, and returned to our bread-baking and computer-working and greenhouse/Jack-tending and wool-felting and whatever else it was we were all doing.
It's hard to believe I've only and already been here a week. There's so much happening here, and it's such an exciting time at DR. I'm already looking forward to coming back.
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